ESPN posted the luxury tax numbers for this past season in the NBA. Here are the eight teams that exceeded the salary cap of $67.865 million (I've added their record for this past season):

New York Knicks $19,723,946 (23-59)

Dallas Mavericks $19,613,295 (51-31)

Cleveland Cavaliers $14,008,561 (45-37)

Denver Nuggets $13,572,079 (50-32)

Miami Heat $8,318,879 (15-67)

Boston Celtics $8,218,368 (66-16)

Los Angeles Lakers $5,131,757 (57-25)

Phoenix Suns $3,867,313 (55-27)

Are the Knicks STILL paying Allan Houston or something? Good luck with that mess D'Antoni.

What stands out to me is the Cavs. Don't try and tell me they're not trying to get LeBron some help...but you can definitely tell me they're very bad at it. Ben Wallace and Wally Szczerbiak combined to make nearly $30 million, and did virtually nothing for that team. The Nuggets continue to under-perform with a wealth of talent and nothing but first-round losses to show for it.

But, it's tough to draw many conclusions from this because you have the Knicks and the Heat, who were the two worst teams in the East, and then you have the Lakers and Celtics, who both went to the Finals. It seems like spending money can definitely help, but throwing money around excessively (Zach Randolph and Eddie Curry) isn't the way to go. It sounds so simple, yet you still see undeserving players getting huge contracts.